4 minute read
The milk man
I take a trip to Bungay to chew the cud with Jonny Crickmore of Fen Farm Dairy and find out how they went from selling a few bottles of raw milk from the garden shed to being one of the UK’s leading artisan dairy producers whose cheese graces the tables of Royalty.
The Crickmore family has been farming the 1000 acres along the Waveney Valley for three generations, and Jonny grew up following in the footsteps of his dad, Graham, donning his wellingtons from the age of four to help with the early morning milking. Father and son now work shoulder to shoulder and, along with Jonny’s wife Dulcie, have spent the last 10 years diversifying the business so that it now includes cheese, butter and yoghurt production, and establishing Fen Farm as a brand that sets the standard for sustainability within the dairy industry. The shed has now been refashioned into a self-service kiosk with high-tech vending machines that dispense litres of creamy raw milk, boxed butter and cheeses, live yoghurt, fresh bread from the local Pennybun Bakery, and even a cappuccino to take away! “This was our first eureka moment. In 2011 we decided to try selling bottles of milk from the roadside and were amazed at how popular it was. We went from selling 30 litres a day to over 200, so I imported a milk vending machine from Italy to help streamline the process. It was the first of its type in the UK and caused quite a stir on the food scene.” With national press interest and visits from the likes of AA Gill, Jonny realised that there was a story to be told and that the quality of the milk would be the key to their success.
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With increased profit margins from direct milk sales, the family started to look at ways of adding value to their milk and turned their attention to British cheeses. “We looked at what was already on the shelves and saw there was a gap in the market for a soft Brie de Meaux style cheese.” With a single-mindedness that cuts to the core of all good business decisions, they decided to focus on filling this gap and becoming the UK’s top producer of soft cheese. In 2013, Jonny headed to the Jura region of France, an area nestled in the shadows of the French Alps that is renowned for its deliciously creamy cheeses – Vacherin, Mont D’Or and Reblochon – and the gentle Montbeliarde dairy cattle that graze its slopes. He returned with 72 head of cattle that were introduced to the rich marshlands of the Waveney valley and his existing herd of Holstein milkers, and began experimenting with recipes.
Montbeliardes produce a milk that is rich in protein, making it perfect for cheesemaking, and later that year Fen Farm produced its first Baron Bigod Brie. This white, bloomyrind cheese has a golden creaminess that lives up to all expectations and is still the only traditional raw milk brie-style cheese to be produced in the UK. Two years later the team turned their attention to producing an artisan butter, again made in the traditions of rural France, using a lactic culture that sours the milk to give it a
wonderful depth of flavour. Wrapped in gold foil and boxed like the cheese, this butter really lends itself to being generously slathered on a slab of crusty bread or melted in a pan with some freshly picked mushrooms.
With both the cheese and butter winning awards and Fen Farm now a recognised brand favoured by well-known chefs and even Royalty, Jonny and the team had their heads turned by a staple of Icelandic life, Skyr. Once again, he packed his bags and travelled to this frozen land to immerse himself in Icelandic yoghurt-making practices. Skyr is made from skimmed milk, a by-product of the butter and cheesemaking process, which is gently heated and mixed with a traditional Icelandic live culture, and once thickened is strained to remove the whey. Fen Farm now makes this natural product back in Suffolk, and the creamy yoghurt is poured over a generous dollop of jam which can be stirred through for a deliciously healthy breakfast.
In the last two years, Jonny has also added tubs of sumptuous mascarpone and a Baron Bigod infused with a layer of black truffle to the list of products. He has a quiet air of ambition about him and is surrounded not only by a great team, but also by a family that has totally invested in the future of the farm. And, with two pairs of small wellies lined up by the backdoor for their children, he and Dulcie now have one eye on future generations of Crickmores.
